Romila Thapar: Historians as Public Intellectuals

Professor Romila Thapar's keynote speech on 20 May at the 'Historians without Borders: The Use and Abuse of History in Conflicts' conference in Helsinki.
In a globalised world it is increasingly important to be aware of history and its various interpretations. History continues to play a role in conflicts. But what can historians do to prevent the abuse of history for political purposes? Historians without Borders in Finland aims to further public discussion about history and to promote the use of historical knowledge for peace-building and conflict resolution.
May 19-20 Historians without Borders organised an international networking conference 'Historians without Borders: The Use and Abuse of History in Conflicts' which constituted the starting point of an international network of Historians without Borders.
www.historiansw...
/ hwb_fi
/ historianswithoutborde...

[@MrJiddukrishhesse]

wow

[@arakashmahale1]

Vision of the anointed! Let me interpret the history according to my idealistic notions. Reality...uhh..doesn't matter!
Borders of the ancient kingdoms were not as rigid as today; can it be due to underdeveloped science of cartography, because they were not intelligent enough to invent computers, internet, satellites, Google Earth, GPS, GIS...!?...ohh, but stating it like that will not make me an intellectual, isn't it, I must use my sophistry to contrive an interpretation which will support my superficial liberal ideology in support of "open door policy" and bang!! I can implicitly demand and command higher moral grounds and people must treat me as an "public intellectual" and hence above reality and pragmatism!
With cleaver play of words and selective reading of history to suit my ideology, I have raised myself way above a 'puny historian', and why stop there, to maintain my position of "high priestess of public intellectuals" I must advocate indoctrination of all future generations, so that they don't develop critical pragmatic thinking and question my authority! 👏🏼

[@avinashchanakya1417]

Romila Thapar is foolish paid historian in INDIA.